According to the state Economic Development Department, manufacturing employment is down 9 percent in New Mexico during the past five years, which means a loss of nearly 3,000 jobs. Computer and electronic products, furniture and textile mill manufacturing decreased by more than 20 percent during the same time period.

Intel Corp. reduced its Rio Rancho workforce by 700 people in 2016, and the plant now employs around 1,200, Intel said Monday.

“Nearly half the employees that left the Rio Rancho site were retirements,” Intel said in its annual report to the Sandoval County Commission. “Most of the remainder were relocated or chose a voluntary separation package.”

That’s a lot of people and a lot more than the 400 that were supposedly let go when I was laid off in 2014.

The last rumor I heard was that they are keeping the place alive through 2019 or some such time until Fab 42 starts to come online. Then they will offer everyone a job in Arizona or lay them off. That will be the end of Intel in New Mexico.

Let’s not beat around the bush. I have great news to share:
Apple is currently hard at work on a “completely rethought” Mac Pro, with a modular design that can accommodate high-end CPUs and big honking hot-running GPUs, and which should make it easier for Apple to update with new components on a regular basis. They’re also working on Apple-branded pro displays to go with them.
I also have not-so-great news:
These next-gen Mac Pros and pro displays will not ship until next year. In the meantime, Apple is today releasing meager speed-bump updates to the existing Mac Pros. The $2999 model goes from 4 Xeon CPU cores to 6, and from dual AMD G300 GPUs to dual G500 GPUs. The $3999 model goes from 6 CPU cores to 8, and from dual D500 GPUs to dual D800 GPUs. Nothing else is changing, including the ports. No USB-C, no Thunderbolt 3 (and so no support for the LG UltraFine 5K display).